Dances from Playford's Dancing Master
(Ann Hinchliffe)

The dancing manuals begun by John Playford in 1651 include hundreds of country dances, apart from tunes without dance figures. Though they have many common elements, other aspects changed through the years, mirroring historical events: the Civil War, the Protectorate, and the Restoration.

In the dance evening, dances from earlier and later editions of the Dancing Master are offered, comparing dances before and after the English Restoration. We will also try some steps like coranto singles and doubles and fleuret steps.

Ann Hinchliffe, Wallasey, United Kingdom

I have been active in English folk music and dance from childhood, dancing, playing, performing  and teaching with folk festivals, morris sides, ceilidh bands, clubs, schools and community groups. As a young teacher, presenting Tudors and Stuarts to my classes, I encountered historical dance and fell in love with it, particularly the English corpus of the 16th to early 19th centuries which is so evidently the progenitor of morris and folk dance. Having joined HDS and EDC, I started running classes in south west England which led to a lively partnership over 9 years with the National Trust and English Heritage. This demanded more research, chiefly with HDS courses, and resulted in invitations to deliver lectures in the HDS lockdown series and classes or workshops at folk festivals across UK. I have worked with wonderful musicians playing a variety of instruments and hold that nothing is better than real live music for dancing.